The Inscribed Angle

by Andrew Bardsley

  Freya nodded and Brian was shown inside. Freya got up to greet him with a hand shake, and then indicated him to sit down.

  Brian spoke in a slightly nervous voice, “Thank you for considering my job application. I have just finished my doctorate at the university and am looking to continue in magical crystalline research. You are one of the only companies doing research in that area.”

  Freya said, “It is a narrow research field, but I’m hoping to make some breakthroughs into the producing high energy magical storage devices.”

  Freya turned her farseeing screen around to show Brian the problems she had so far with crystalline structural theories, “I was hoping you could explain this to me?”

  Brain looked at the problem started to explain it in an enlightening way, without a condescending tone. After about an hour of going back and forth with questions, Freya finally understood the theory well enough to continue.

  She said to Brian, “If you could please follow me, I want your opinion about an experimental setup I’m working with. Brian nodded and followed the older woman out of the door and into one of the large experimental labs.

  As Brian saw all the equipment in the lab, he gave an impressed low whistle, “I recognize a lot of the machines here. We often wished we could of afford them in the other university labs. This setup looks like you’re already ready to manipulate the magical crystalline structure.

  Freya smiled to herself at his enthusiasm. “Yes, I’ve just got the experimental setup together and we’re starting a few trials. I’m starting to look into the energy particle density, and its relation to crystalline structure.”

  For the next couple of hours Freya and Brian looked over the experimental setup repeatedly, examining the equipment in detail. Brian had some changes that he suggested to the normal setting to improve the equipment. Soon the two were excitedly talking about an experimental program. In the end, Freya had to leave for another appointment, but asked Brian to continue on with the work. As she was about to leave, Brian called out to her, “So, did I get the job?”

  Freya spoke with a smile in her voice, “You had the job about two hours ago. If it’s ok with you, and I imagine it is, I will start paying you from first thing this morning. Beck has the details of your contract, if you have any problems, please let me know and I will review them. Just carry on with the experimental plans we discussed.”

  With that, Freya rushed off to her next appointment. This was under a different persona, an illusionary disguise that she created a few weeks back, for the purpose of integrating into the world of mercenaries. In this world of magical potential, many governments or corporations used mercenary groups for their own security needs. Freya had thought back to the forces that attacked the institution and how she had escaped into the night. She was hoping that if she could gain access to the world of mercenary groups, she might be able to find information about the group that attacked her. In addition, Freya need to increase her combat experience. To this end, she now was working under the name of Annie Creed, with the appearance of a woman in her mid-twenties, with long black hair in a braid. Freya now looked high above the average and very athletically built with attractive features. Her clothing was all black with a leather jacket and all of her clothing had powerful inscriptions on them.

  For the last few weeks, Freya had been applying to work with a particular mercenary group. They were a small specialist unit. All she could find out about operations that the group undertook was that this mercenary group only did legally sanctioned activities. The mercenary team was about ten people strong and Freya was being hired as the heavy hitting magical support. She had already met the leader of the group and shown off her high-powered magical attack abilities. In addition, she had a high level of inscription abilities that would be useful in equipment maintenance. This demonstration had been enough for him to give Freya a trial run on the next assignment.

  Today was the mission, and Freya was off in her Annie Creed persona at the group's storage and office facilities for the group briefing.

  Freya arrived on time and was met by the leader of the group at the entrance. Freya remembered his name as Jack Connor, a heavily built man who had been in this game, as he said, for too long.

  Jack spoke in a strong commanding voice as he showed Freya to the meeting area, “Take a chair at the back and keep quiet unless you are asked a direct question. I will do the introductions. Until you have proven yourself to the group, they will not interact with you too much, so don’t be offended about being ignored at first.”

  Freya nodded as they entered the room of set up chairs. The room was also used as a storage facility. There were orderly crates stacked around the chairs up to the ceiling. The whole area was orderly but in a compacted efficient space. There were a few people already milling around and talking in the room. All of them greeted Jack but ignored Freya.

  Freya did as she was told and took a chair at the back of the room, and silently watched more people start to file in over the next five minutes. The room was now noisy with all the people catching up with each other. They seemed to be a friendly group, just not to the silent Freya.

  At the exact time for the start of the meeting, Jack cleared his throat at the front. Immediately, the whole room went silent. Jack started, “Now that I have your attention, let's start the briefing. Firstly, as you may have noticed we have a new potential member, her name Annie Creed and she will be our heavy hitting magical support.”

  One of the groups groaned but did not even look back at Freya. Jack continued saying, “Don’t worry people, she is not taking a cut of the money on this trial run.”

  Which seemed to cheer up the group of men and women. Jack again spoke, “Onto the important stuff, the mission briefing. We have a damsel in distress situation, our job is to extract a daughter of a prominent business man. She is being held hostage in a region which control is being fought over by several fractions. Our job is to get her out safely.”

  The group gave their complete attention to Jack as he outlined the plan for the next couple of hours. To Freya it seemed like a quick infiltration of the disputed area, via high powered magical vehicle and search of the area to confirm the target location. Then an attack and extraction with an evacuation back to home base.

  The last item on Jack’s list of instructions was, “Everybody be here at 0200 in two-days for operation preparation and we will be off by, 0400 the same day.” He paused and nodded to himself. “See you then.”

  All the group started chatting again and slowly left the building, Freya left without anybody talking to her.

  --

  The next two days in preparation for Freya’s first mercenary mission were hectic. Freya spent most of the time in the lab with Brian, fleshing out the experimental program for developing the high energy storage crystal. Freya found that she worked well with Brian, but Brian seemed to be in constant awe of her Marple Green persona. Freya had to be careful to allow Brian to get his point across, as if she expressed an option, he would agree with her, even when she was unsure herself. Freya also spent some time setting up the business with Beck, and by the time she was leaving for mission, Freya was sure the everything would run without her for a while.

  It was now 0200 on the day of the infiltration mission. Freya and the other members of the group were all collected in the briefing area. Jack had just given out the final briefing and assignment for the mission preparation. For the next two hours, before lift-off, Freya was ordered around by everybody.

  Most of the orders were, “Take this over there rookie” and, “No, over here now rookie.”

  Freya just endured all the hazing with good grace, and quickly did what she was told, with no comment. The time came for all of the mercenaries to get into the transport. The magical vehicle that was taking them to the combat zone was a large sturdily built craft. Freya felt the outside vibrating with the magical energies in the large inscriptions. Rather than normal magical vehicles which were highly efficient in u
sing power, this vehicle was a power hog. All of the systems were completely over powered to enable the vehicle to work in any situation and blast through anything.

  Jack ordered Freya in a commanding tone, “Annie you go up front as you will be the last one out, and when you exit just stick close to Ross, and he’ll keep you alive.”

  The large man with a stun weapon on his shoulder to her right groaned. “Great, I get to baby-sit again!”

  With that expression, he indicated where Freya should sit and helped strap her into the magical restraints. Ross said to Freya, “Stick close to me and you should be okay rookie”

  Freya acknowledged the order with a nod, as Ross strapped in. Freya was close enough to the pilot to see over their shoulder, through the front magical shield to the outside of the vehicle. The large hog of a flying vehicle joined all the other vehicles in the sky. Compared to the other dandy crafts littering the sky, the mercenary craft was like a wild hog, ready to gore any vehicle in its way. Freya though this was appropriate metaphor, as the team called it ‘The Hog’. For the next several hours the hog moved sedately through the sky, while most of the mercenaries slept. Freya nervously checked and rechecked her inscriptions on her body, that give her a high level of protection. She was carrying hundreds of full energy crystals, in case she needed an energy boost, and of course empty ones to siphon of excess energy.

  At some undefined point after flying over a desert for several hours, the pilot came over the coms channel and said, “Okay people. It's been a nice ride so far, but here is where it gets interesting. We’re entering the disputed region, and we will be going in low and fast. You have twenty seconds to ensure you are strapped in.”

  At the twenty second mark, The Hog plunged to the tree top level. Freya’s stomach climbed up into her throat and all the mercenaries started swearing roughly at the pilot. The vehicle sped up, as it charged just above the tree tops. Freya looked quickly out of the window, and wished she hadn't just as quickly. The hog was hugging the contours of the land. Every time it came to a hill it pulled up quickly, until it just crested the top, and then plunged downward following the ground. The weaving and bobbing continued on for what seemed like eternity, until a red light with a countdown.

  Jack shouted into the magical communication channel, the team were tuned to, “Everybody get all your gear on and move out on the mark when we land. Standard formation.”

  With that the ten members of the mercenary team got up holding the hand grips and put on their pack for a quick exit. As the numbers counted down to zero, Freya felt the hog slow down for landing. As it just touched the ground the count was zero, the back ramp dropped, and the front mercenaries ran down the ramp. They fanned out and took up defensive positions, with glowing hands showing magical power ready to be thrown. The was a slight heat mist in front of the group indicating a magical shield. The rest of the team exited as well, and as soon as the last person, which was Freya, jumped off the ramp, the hog moved forward and shot up into the air, as the ramp closed.

  The eleven-member team quickly, but orderly, moved into cover provided by trees surrounding the landing zone. Freya kept right beside Ross the whole time. When the team was crouched in cover, a woman named Meg produced twenty small green flashing balls of energy. These balls rushed off in every direction. Within seconds, the woman started to give a report on the situation within the area the balls were traveling through.

  Jack turned to Meg, the farseeing specialist, “I want you sweeping a ten-kilometer area continuously.”

  The woman looked grim but nodded, accepting the order. Jack then continued his orders, “Fire Team One up front, and Fire Team Two scouting the route to the facility.”

  Several members of the group said, in quick succession, “Yes sir!” and moved out into their relevant roles.

  Ross and Freya were in the group following Fire Team One. As Freya kept on Ross’s tail at all times, she could tell that he was pleased at her effort. The group started to move at a jogging pace, that ate up the miles. Freya started to use her air inscriptions magical power, to boost to her body. Even though she looked like an adult, she was still a five-year-old under all the magic and falling behind was not an option.

  Hours passed at the jogging pace, but as long as Freya was using her air boost, she was not only able to keep up but did not feel much strain on her small body. The farseeing specialist was conferring with Jack as they caught up.

  Jack’s voice came over the magical communications channel, “Listen up everybody. We are within a two-kilometer radius of the target, Fire team One and Two are with me for the strike. Ross, you need to take Annie to the elevated position indicated on the map. Both of you will be providing magical fire support and suppression. This is just as we planned, any questions people?”

  There were no questions and the mercenary group split-up quickly and silently. Freya and Ross made their way through scrubby bush up a steep incline and then followed a map to a position just behind the crest of a hill. As the two crawled up to the top, Freya was just able to see the light on the valley floor. The compound did not look large, it may have held about fifty people, from Freya’s estimations.

  Ross whispered to Freya roughly, “Time for us, well me at least, to start earning the money. I know that Jack has gone through this briefing already but I’m going to repeat it once. Only hit the targets that are indicated in your farseeing goggles, those are connected to the combat net with the plan uploaded into them. It is most important that you limit the effects to the designated areas, as if you injure or kill any of our people it will not go well. I’ll be keeping an eye on you to make sure nothing goes wrong. If you just do what is in the command net, everything will be okay. Got it rookie?”

  Freya gave a quick, “Yes sir,” and put on her farseeing goggles.

  As soon as she put on the goggles, the whole valley lit up, as if it were day. She could see the fire teams moving closer to the compound. As Freya, concentrated on each member, she was able to see detail of the persons health and who they were. The system also lit up the enemy combatants. For the next half an hour, Freya was able to watch the fire team move from cover to cover to the side of the compound. The movement was a fluid motion of one team's movement and the other team covering. As the fire team reached the edge of the compound, one of its members sent out a mist from his hands. This mist slowly dispersed any magical runes or alarms inscribed on the fence, where the teams would be breaching. Freya zoomed in with her goggles and watched the same man use a small flame, from his finger, to cut a hole in the wire fencing. The fire team moved through the hole and started moving toward a building at the back of the compound. In there was the figure of a woman marked in green as the target for extraction. The first fire team went in for the extraction, as the second guarded the exit route. As they went inside the building Freya started to see the enemy combatants being blasted by stun, fire, force and close combat magic. Every now and then, the mercenaries would be hit by a blast on their shield, but none of her team were down yet.

  Suddenly, a loud klaxon horn sounded from the compound. The compound lit up as balls of magical light shot into the air.

  Ross kept calm and said, “Just follow the orders on the farseeing combat network.”

  Before Freya could respond, several icons appeared on each of the light balls, indicating a requirement of extinguishing the lights. Freya made a mental image of the inscription for opaque shields surrounding each of the light ball. As she added her power into it, all of the bright lights went out. This had only taken a fraction of a second. Now the whole compound was back into darkness. Soon several circles appeared within the compound ordering fire strikes confined within each of the circle.

  Ross said clearly, “You are free to strike with fireballs anywhere inside the circles.”

  Freya just pulled on her fire power and mentally worked the inscriptions for the desired effect. Emerging from the sky above the compound, jets of fire washed down, and stayed restricted to the ci
rcles. At the edges of each circle, the flames cascaded and stopped. Ross let out a muffled exclamation but said nothing. As the circles in the command system moved, the waves of fire moved with them. Next were several commands to force shield certain areas, Freya accomplished this with little exertion. As the Fire Teams were exiting the compound, the shields and fire kept the enemy combats at bay. Freya saw people start to shoot magical bombardments attacks on her shield. To counteract this, she channeled more magical energy into the shields, which easily held. The next command that came across the combat network was an order to destroy all vehicles in the compound. Each vehicle was lit up by an icon, and an area of effect of not to exceed. Freya decided that the best way to destroy the vehicles was with pure force. Activating an inscription on her body, she produced several massive shields above each vehicle in the compound and smashed down crushing all the vehicles into the dirt.

  For the next while, all Freya had to do was move around the fire waves and shields to cover the extraction of the Fire Team. Once the Fire Teams were clear of the area around the compound, and there was no pursuit. Ross and were ordered to move to the rendezvous. The two set out running, following a path marked in the goggles. It took them an hour of hard running, to meet up with the rest of the group of mercenaries, as they ran between the desert plants.

  Jack spoke over the com again, “We need to move quickly to the extraction point for The Hog, Fire Team Two upfront now and move with all speed.”

  Freya noticed that a woman was strapped to a light weight gurney, hovering over the ground, being pulled along by the team’s medic.

  Ross seemed to answer Freya’s thoughts as they ran alongside the gurney, “That must be the person we were sent to extract, we always have them on a gurney, as it keeps them still and controlled.”

  The next half hour the group of mercenaries moved as fast as they could back to safety. Jack came over the coms channel and said, “The Hog is only twenty minutes out, and we’ve made good time, so we’ll be at the extraction point in five minutes.”